Modern slavery case that happened on our doorstep
A new report shows that many cases of people being trafficked or used as slaves in Oxfordshire go unreported to police.
In August 2019 Michael Joyce, 60, was jailed for five years for enslaving two vulnerable victims, forcing them to work for nothing and to build him a pub at an Oxford travellers’ site.
Joyce, of Redbridge Hollow, had a “vice like grip” on one victim’s life for “many months” after he initially loaned him £50.
He was found guilty of five offences between April 2016 and January 2018.
Judge Ian Pringle QC said: “In your dealings with these two vulnerable men you acted as a bully, striking fear into them and their partners.”
The jury at Oxford Crown Court heard how Joyce had taken advantage of mental illness and the drug use of his two victims.
Prosecutor Kim Preston said victim Paul West, who worked at a site at Redbridge Hollow, used his benefits to pay Joyce more than £16,000.
Mr West told the court he was ‘petrified’ of Joyce and that his life with the family ‘was hell’.
He said: “I used to cry myself to sleep. My life was not in a good place.
“It was just a constant battle with every aspect of my day-to-day life.
Joyce was found guilty of two counts of making his victims carry out unpaid work and two counts of transporting them for the purpose of exploitation.
He was also convicted of money lending when not an authorised person.
He was given a 10-year slavery and trafficking prevention order.
In October 2021 drug dealer Kofie Welch, 26, who was jailed in 2019 for selling crack was given an order banning him from associating with children for the next three years.
Welch, must also register his car or any vehicle he’s insured to drive with the police – after a judge at Oxford Magistrates’ Court imposed Thames Valley’s first Slavery and Trafficking Risk Order.
Source: (Oxford Mail)